Received 11/25/2019 1:53:26 PM Supreme Court Eastern District Filed 11/25/2019 1:53:00 PM Supreme Court Eastern District 125 EM 2019 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Docket No. 125 EM 2019 In re: Conflict of Interest of the Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney, Supplemental Petition of Maureen Faulkner, Widow of deceased Police Officer Daniel Faulkner APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO FILE SUPPLEMENT TO KING'S BENCH PETITION BOCHETTO & LENTZ, P.C. George Bochetto, Esquire (27783) David P. Heim, Esquire (84323) John O'Connell, Esquire (205572) 1524 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 735-3900 Attorneys for Petitioner Maureen Faulkner Petitioner, Maureen Faulkner ("Mrs. Faulkner"), files this Application for Leave to File a Supplement to the King's Bench Petition filed on November 12, 2019. In support thereof, Petitioner avers as follows: 1. On November 12, 2019, Petitioner filed a King's Bench Petition seeking the disqualification of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office from further involvement in the prosecution of Commonwealth v. Murcia Abu-Jamal. 2. Since the filing of the King's Bench Petition, Petitioner has discovered additional evidence of conflicts of interest that further support the requested relief to disqualify the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. 3. Petitioner has, therefore, prepared a Supplement to her King's Bench Petition, including appending additional exhibits, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit "1." WHEREFORE, Petitioner respectfully requests this Court GRANT LEAVE to file the Supplement to Petitioner's King's Bench Petition. Respectfully submitted, BOCHETTO & LENTZ, P.C. Dated: November 25, 2019 By: /s/ George Bochetto George Bochetto, Esquire David P. Heim, Esquire John O'Connell, Esquire Attorneys for Petitioner 2 CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC ACCESS COMPLIANCE I certify that this filing complies with the provisions of the Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania: Case Records of the Appellate and Trial Courts that require filing confidential information and documents differently than non -confidential information and documents. Dated: November 25, 2019 /s/ George Bochetto George Bochetto, Esquire 3 EXHIBIT 1 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Docket No. 125 EM 2019 In re: Conflict of Interest of the Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney, Supplemental Petition of Maureen Faulkner, Widow of deceased Police Officer Daniel Faulkner APPLICATION TO SUPPLEMENT KING'S BENCH PETITION BOCHETTO & LENTZ, P.C. George Bochetto, Esquire (27783) David P. Heim, Esquire (84323) John O'Connell, Esquire (205572) 1524 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 735-3900 Attorneys for Petitioner Maureen Faulkner INTRODUCTION On November 12, 2019, Petitioner filed a King's Bench Petition asserting, in part, that "...high ranking officials from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office -- including the District Attorney himself -- suffer from personal conflicts of interest which are so obvious and so incendiary that the Office's continued representation of the Commonwealth all but guarantees a bias and unjust adjudication of the Jamal case." Since that Petition was filed, additional facts relevant to District Attorney Larry Krasner's personal conflicts in the Jamal case have been discovered by counsel for Petitioner. The purpose of this supplement is to include those new facts as additional "....dispositive evidence of Krasner's bias in this matter...." These new facts reveal that Krasner himself was a "movement attorney" and "strategist" representing advocates for Mumia Abu-Jamal's exoneration and freedom. When combined with the facts already presented these new facts demonstrate an obvious and overwhelming appearance of impropriety and conflict of interest disqualifying Krasner and his office from further involvement in the Jamal matter. It is important to note that none of these facts have been previously disclosed by Krasner to the Court or Faulkner's widow, Maureen, when he responded to Petitioner's prior Petition to Intervene in the Superior Court, wherein he denied there were any actionable conflicts of interest involving him and his 1 Office. Petitioner respectfully requests the new facts outlined below be incorporated into the original King's Bench Petition and be considered by the Court. I. Krasner's Close Association with the Movement to Free Mumia Abu- Jamal and Legal Work on Behalf of Jamal Supporters. The National Lawyers Guild ("NLG") was started in 1937 as an organization of lawyers dedicated to representing labor unions and oppressed minorities. Over the years, the focus of the organization broadened to include a variety of causes, including the representation of "political prisoners" and "activists." Its website describes NLG as a members run organization. As early as 1998, Mumia Abu-Jamal became a member of the NLG's governing board.' Jamal remains a member today as "Jailhouse lawyer and VP Emeritus."2 In the summer of 2000, two years after Jamal joined the NLG board, the Republican National Convention ("RNC") was held in the City of Philadelphia. In advance of the convention, a variety of groups opposed to the Republican party worked together to organize protests at the convention. The organized protests were advertised in advance of the convention on a variety of websites and fliers. The first protest was scheduled for August 1, 2000 as "a Day of Resistance to the 1 See Ex. 0, NLG December 6, 1998 Board and Staff. The Exhibits attached to this Supplement continue from the last Exhibit in the original King's Bench Petition. 2 See Ex. P. 2 Death Penalty and the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal."3 During the protest, hundreds of people were arrested for a variety of offenses including assault on police, obstruction of major roadways and various acts of vandalism. In response to these arrests, the NLG organized a team of lawyers and non -lawyers in Philadelphia to provide legal representation to the protestors. The NLG organized lawyers operated under the name "R2K Legal."4 R2K Legal was co-founded by an NLG member named Kris Hermes ("Hermes"). Like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Hermes is a vice president of the NLG. (Hermes is listed in at least one publication directly above Mumia Abu-Jamal as a fellow "VP.")5 The R2K Legal website explained the political purpose of the legal team and the fact that it was being housed out of the NLG Philadelphia headquarters: R2K Legal is a collective of over 400 activists that were arrested during the Republican National Convention protests in Philadelphia, PA (the RNC 420). Along with supporters and attorneys, they are taking their legal defense into their own hands, and forcing the process to be political. Contact Info R2K Legal Collective do National Lawyers Guild 924 Cherry Street, 5th Floor Philadelphia, PA 1910" 3 See Ex. Q, Flier. 4 See Ex. R, R2K address and website. 5 See Ex. S, Guild Notes from the summer of 2014 referencing Hermes. 3 In addition to being organized by NLG where Jamal was a member, R2K Legal was also aligned with the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal in other ways. In 2016, Hermes wrote a book recounting the lessons learned in the 2000 RNC protest called Crashing the Party, Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 ("Crashing the Party"). In his book and related interviews, Hermes detailed how the protest of the RNC was planned and how Mumia Abu-Jamal's name and case became prominent parts of those protests: As governor of Texas, George W. Bush epitomized the injustice of the criminal legal system. He was notorious for having signed execution warrants for 138 people and executing 152 people -more that any other governor in the history of Texas up to that point. (Crashing the Party at page 24.)6 The demands of the August 1 Direct Action Coalition were to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners, abolish the prison industrial complex and the death penalty, stop police violence, and end the corporate war on the poor. (Crashing the Party at page 24 and attached Flier.) The importance of Mumia Abu-Jamal to the political movement that the RNC protest represented has been confirmed by members of the R2K Legal 6 See Ex. T, Crashing the Party (excerpted pages attached.) See Ex. U, flier distributed for the protests, prominently displaying Jamal's prison photograph. 4 collective. In October 2010, an author with the nom de guerre "Susan Subways" published an interview with R2K Legal participants from the Student Liberation Action Movement ("SLAM"). SLAM was one of the protest groups responsible for making Mumia Abu-Jamal's exoneration and freedom a prominent part of the RNC protest.8 The interview included the following account of the work of the R2K Legal team: What inspired you to participate in R2K? The Republican National Convention decided to hold their convention in Philadelphia, which was very symbolic for them in terms of "the cradle of liberty." We know Philadelphia as the place Mumia, a journalist, writer and educator, was framed for murder and placed on death row. So to see the Republicans going to Philadelphia - many of us took it as a direct challenge to us to bring those politics around prisons and political prisoners to the forefront of the national consciousness.9 During their representation of the protestors, the R2K Legal team website included numerous references to Mumia Abu-Jamal: Samples of his writings as part of the explanation of the R2K organization's "Background," Walkin' in the Shadow of Death, by 8 See Ex. T, Crashing the Party (excerpted pages attached.) 9 See Ex. V. 5 Mumia Abu-Jamal (other articles and columns by Mumia and death penalty info.10 An R2K press release announcing a November 8, 2000 press conference to address the "mass trials" of the protestors. The press release described the protestors' arrest as follows: During the Republican National Convention, thousands of people took to the streets demanding: FREEDOM FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY ABOLISH THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX STOP POLICE TERROR END THE CORPORATE WAR ON THE POOR POWER TO OUR COMMUNITIES As protesters head to trial, they reissue these demands and reaffirm their commitment to protest until our voices are heard.